Have you ever had that problem when you start creating your site you hit a brick wall? Ok, maybe not creating your site but when you’re thinking about how your site should look like it’s just difficult.

Especially if you’re using website designs with a more modern feel you need tons of images. There are a lot of technologies now that could help you improve the looks of your sites. Parallax, flat, a lot but what’s important is that in the end it looks good.

Leave it to the pros, you say but hey, it’s your site and the pros are still going to ask you what kind of picture do you want to put in your header, navigation, anywhere. So it’s all about the images, where do you get those, you ask?

You first go out to Google and find some images that you might like, but then you know that just grabbing images from anyone is not a good idea and might get you in trouble. In fact there have been cases where you get fined an a case filed against your for copyright infringement. Ok, not a good idea. But during your research you come across what they call stock photos, especially Adobe Stock Photography.

It’s a godsend. Now, you can get images legally – and all those images look awesome and are of the highest quality. Now you start thinking and your brain starts running on overdrive on the things that you’re able to do with all these images.

You start searching and then you come to the right terms that leads you to what your site is all about.

Now, you got what you need and now you realize that you can boost the looks of your site with stock images, with Adobe Stock Photography. You now
have a good idea on how your site is going to look like. You know it’s going to look awesome, you know your visitors are going to love it.

You get on a call with your design team and tell them about your find, you’re ecstatic, and they are too because finally you got them what they need to get your website completed, at last.

Classy website, professional-looking site, whatever site you want to build out and in whatever niche those sites are in, you know that with Adobe Stock Photography you will get far and create these amazing sites that before, you only see on the internet now you can finish off your site with these images.

Best part of all? You don’t need to worry about licenses and all the legal implications of putting up these images because there’s just none. Once you get them legally you’re good to go and you can use these on your site.

One of the biggest selling points of Adobe’s new stock photography service, Adobe Stock, is the total app integration between the tech giant’s stock photography library and their creative design programs, like Photoshop and Indesign. But as more users experiment with Adobe Stock images and test the limits of app integration’s power, one question is on the mind of many creative professionals. Can you edit Adobe Stock Images?

Many stock photography users turn to vendors like Adobe looking for one thing: legal imagery, that has been correctly licensed for commercial use. But how does the act of editing Adobe’s stock images affect that legality? And is it acceptable under copyright law to transform the imagery you download from a vendor like Adobe Stock? As it turns out, Adobe’s licensing terms answer all of these questions and more, and make it clear where and when it is legally ok to edit Adobe stock imagery. Here’s a breakdown of the most important information you can find in their licensing agreement, as far as image editing is concerned, and an explanation of how Adobe’s image licensing impacts users hoping to edit stock photography legally.

You CAN Edit Adobe Stock Images

In most cases, editing stock imagery you have bought the commercial rights to from an agency like Adobe isn’t a major issue and won’t cause you any legal headaches. Of course, there are some factors that complicate this answer, and you shouldn’t be under the impression that you can edit imagery however you like. That being said, there is a somewhat clear answer to this question, at least on the surface. Yes, you CAN edit Adobe Stock images,

In fact, the tech giant is actively encouraging users to do so through their full integration with photo editing software like Photoshop. The beauty of Adobe’s image integration is that it makes it simple and straightforward to take a commercially licensed photograph and mold it to your own needs, through the creative design power of Adobe’s flagship programming. In general, most images licensed under royalty free licensing terms can be edited to suit your commercial needs, and need not be left in their original form. Of course, there are some strict limitations on this kind of editing. And a look at Adobe stock photos’ licensing agreement answers the editing question more definitively.

Editing Images and Intellectual Property

The first major stipulation that Adobe makes about editing their imagery, which you can read more about in their Terms of Service under section 1.5, has to do with intellectual property rights. Adobe states clearly that “your modifications must not violate or infringe on the intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity.” For Adobe stock image users hoping to edit their photos, that’s a pretty unavoidable mandate. But what does it really mean for users?

From Adobe’s perspective, all of the imagery sold in their library has been carefully screened to make sure that no intellectual property rights have been violated. When a stock photo vendor like Adobe licenses imagery to users for commercial purposes, they have to be sure that there aren’t logos of other companies, trademarks that have active copyrights, or any other forms of intellectual property represented in their imagery. And by putting in a stipulation that forbids intellectual property infringement in their licensing terms, Adobe hopes to pass on that level of rigor to their customers. Just be sure that you aren’t breaking any copyright law by infringing on the trademarks or intellectual property of other brands, and this term shouldn’t get in the way of your editing.

Editing Images and Negative Depictions

The one other area where Adobe expressly forbids image editing is where it would slander the models in their stock photos, or otherwise make models or photographers look bad. Adobe forbids image editing that might “place the author or the model in a bad light or depict them in any way that might be deemed offensive.” From a stock photographer or model perspective this is good news, but what does it look like for stock photo users hoping to edit their downloads?

All image editing must be in good taste, or at least not in bad taste towards the models and stock photographers associated with any particular image. When models sign away the rights to their likeness, giving a vendor like Adobe permission to sell their image for commercial purposes, there is often a stipulation in their contract that forbids their defamation. And as a stock photo user, when you edit imagery you can not infringe on that contract by making models or photographers look bad.

As long as you follow these guidelines, you are more than welcome to edit Adobe stock images. Just be sure that your editing doesn’t violate intellectual property laws, or make models or photographers look bad, and you should be legally in the clear to edit images to your heart’s content.